Bourne, Randolph Silliman

Related Category: American Literature: Biographies

(bôrn), 1886–1918, American author, b. Bloomfield, N.J., grad. Columbia Univ., 1912. His critical examination of the American way of life established him as a spokesman for his generation. The books he wrote on progressive education, The Gary Schools (1916) and Education and Living (1917), reflect the influence of John Dewey. Bourne opposed U.S. entry into World War I and wrote pacifist and nonintervention articles, which were collected posthumously in Untimely Papers (1919).

See his History of a Literary Radical (ed. by V. W. Brooks, 1920); letters (ed. by E. J. Sandeen, 1981); J. A. Moreau, Randolph Bourne (1966); B. Clayton, Forgotten Prophet (1984).